Extending network services using mobile agents

Abstract

A technique fulfills service requests in a system of computers that communicate as nodes within a network. The technique involves sending, in response to an initial service request that requests a service provided by a primary server node, a mobile agent from the primary server node to an intermediate node. The mobile agent indicates to the intermediate node that a secondary server node is capable of providing the service. The technique further involves intercepting, at the intermediate node, a subsequent service request sent from a client node to the primary server node, the subsequent service request requesting the service, and sending an instruction from the intermediate node to the secondary server node. The instruction instructs the secondary server node to provide the service. The technique further includes providing, in response to the instruction, the service from the secondary server node to the client node.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 404,776, filed Sep. 24, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,157, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 102,121 filed Sep. 28, 1998, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND[0002]Computer networks, such as the Internet, private intranets, extranets, and virtual private networks, are increasingly being used for a variety of endeavors including the storage and retrieval of information, communication, electronic commerce, entertainment, and other applications. In these networks certain computers, known as servers or home servers, are used to provide some type of service such as access to information (e.g., data or programs) stored in various computer file formats but generically referred to herein as a “document”. While in the Internet the documents are typically primarily composed of text and graphics, each such document can actually...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]By distributing the work of servicing requests to one or more secondary server nodes within the network, the work of servicing requests that are intercepted on their way to the primary server node is offloaded from the primary server node. The secondary server nodes are preferably closer to the client nodes (by number of hops and distance) such that response time is faster, and less network traffic is created.

[0019]With the above-described redirection technique, the servicing of the subsequent service request is redirected from the primary server node to the secondary server node. Preferably, the service request is intercepted before it reaches the primary server node, and handled by the secondary server node without intervention from the primary server node. This enables a reduction in network traffic to the primary server node, and allows the work of servicing the subsequent service request to be unloaded from the primary server node onto the secondary server node.

Problems solved by technology

Computer and network industry analysts and experts are presently quite concerned that traffic on the Internet is becoming so heavy that the very nature of the way in which it is possible to use the Internet may change.

In particular, many individuals now believe that the Internet is intolerably slow and is no longer a reliable entity for the exchange of information in a timely fashion.

The present bottlenecks are no doubt the result of exponential increases in the number of users as well as in the number of complex documents such as multimedia files being sent.

This will come, however, only at the expense of installing high bandwidth interconnection hardware, such as coaxial or fiber optic cable and associated modems and the like, into homes and neighborhoods around the world.

Furthermore, added bandwidth by itself perhaps would not guarantee that performance would improve.

In particular, large multimedia files such as for video entertainment would still potentially displace higher priority types of data, such as corporate E-mails.

Unfortunately, bandwidth allocation schemes are difficult to implement, short of modifying existing network communication protocols.

While there are ambitious proposals to extend the TCP / IP protocol so that the address can include information about packet content, these proposals are technologically complex and would require coordination between operators of many thousands of computer networks.

To expect that modifications will be made to existing TCP / IP protocols is thus perhaps unrealistic.

These schemes begin with the premise that the basic client-server model (where clients connect directly to home servers) is wasteful of resources, especially for information which needs to be distributed widely from a single home server to many clients.

There are indeed, many examples of where Internet servers have simply failed because of their inability to cope with the unexpected demand placed upon them.

As such, response times may be slow due to the amount of network (number of hops and distances) the messages must pass through.

In particular, delays such as those caused by bottlenecks at the cross-oceanic network connections may result in excessively long response times reducing the benefit of the mirroring overseas site to the overseas clients.

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